In general, financial institutions have automated most check processing systems by printing financial information, such as account numbers and bank routing numbers, onto the checks. Before a check amount is deducted from a payer's account, the amount, account number, and other important information must be extracted from the check. This highly automated form of extraction is done by a check processing control system that captures information from the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (“MICR”) line. The MICR line consists of specially designed numerals that are printed on the bottom of a check using magnetic ink. The MICR data fields include the bank routing number, bank transit number, account number, check serial number, check amount, process code and extended process code.
Checks and other documents may be processed by banks and other financial institutions in large numbers. The documents that may be processed might include checks, deposit slips, payment slips, etc. In some cases the banks or other financial institutions may be required to use the actual physical documents. For example, checks might need to be transported between multiple banks or other financial institutions. This may slow down the processing of financial documents. In addition, other types of documents that are non-financial in nature may be processed by businesses and other institutions in large volumes.